On a cold October night, five people gather in a run-down motel on the Jersey shore and begin preparations to break into the Paragon Hotel. Built in the glory days of Asbury Park by a reclusive millionaire, the magnificent structure - which foreshadowed the beauties of art deco architecture - is now boarded up and marked for demolition.
The five people are "creepers," the slang term for urban explorers: city archeologists with a passion for investigating abandoned buildings and their dying secrets. On this evening, they are joined by a reporter who wants to profile them - anonymously, as this is highly illegal activity - for a New York Times article.
Frank Balenger, a sandy-haired, broad-shouldered reporter with a decided air of mystery about him, isn't looking for just a story, however. And after the group enters the rat-infested tunnel leading to the hotel, it becomes clear that he will get much more than he bargained for. Danger, terror, and death await the creepers in a place ravaged by time and redolent of evil.
David Morrell, true-life member of the Special Operations Association and the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, weaves a harrowing story. Patrick G. Lawlor narrates the first-person account of journalist Frank Balenger, who joins a group of "creepers," urban archaeologists who illegally enter structures to unearth mysteries of the past. New Jersey's Paragon Hotel--built by a wealthy neurotic as a fortress against the outside world--is slated for demolition. Lawlor's voice is fraught with tension as the explorers encounter a claustrophobic's nightmare of diminishing walls, contracting hallways, and tunnels full of secrets. Lawlor fills the listener's ears with heart-stopping terror. Definitely not for the timid. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
About the Author
David Morrell is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty-eight books, including his award-winning Creepers. Co-founder of the International Thrillers Writers Organization, he is considered by many to be the father of the modern action novel. To learn more, go to www.davidmorrell.net.
